A new blog. A new motivation. After spending almost a year searching for my presence on the web, I believe I have found it. While Medium does not offer the greatest design options, I do not have to fuss over how it looks, which features I can’t use or why the entries do not appear the way I would like them to.

And I finally have a first post.

One of the reasons I chose Medium was because of how it branded itself as a platform for leaders who might dance to a slightly different beat than the “norm”. It’s a platform for social entrepreneurs, journalists, political activists, social activists and academics. Whether or not that’s accurate I’ll never know.

But for now, it is.

Now, where does my story begin? I’ll start with the organization and experience that changed the way I viewed leadership and the world.

HOBY, Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Conference. It’s a hard thing to put into words. It’s not a thing; it’s a way of being. To save some space, I’ll let someone else explain it.

As an ambassador my sophomore year of high school, I did not have the greatest experience. My group never clicked. They seemed disengaged. Luckily, I met a few ambassadors who helped reshape my experience as a new alum.

I returned to HOBY my junior year of high school as a volunteer. I met a whole new group of alumni. Some were Alumni Team (A-Team) veterans. Most were newbies, like me. My friendships grew stronger; eventually, I came to call them family. I watched how they interacted with ambassadors, how much they sacrificed to give them the experience I never truly had.